Preguntas, please?

Remember this: Public questions need an answer. Note: If you are going to use me. I am going to use you; Quid Pro Quo. 

I was perusing; oh, sweet perusing. I am going to use the same picture they used. This was the question-statement I saw:

Why people criticize trophy photos, when in fact anywhere in the world, the first form of art was man drawing himself hunting all over the caves he lived in, boulders he passed, or cliffs he visited.

I figured it was publicly there; anyone could answer.

Simple answer:       

It is the intent, behavior of the discourse, how the image is used, and how it is applied in the negative to another individual.

Ancients writing on walls do not get on the internet and ram a trophy photo in someone’s face as an instigator piece for fighting. It was life or death in those days.

Entitled hunters, using the internet to feed their egos, are detrimental to hunting participants, because they cause problems accentuated by bad behaviors performed on public venues. The common person is being penalized for some action or thought another hunter does in the negative as a collective punishment or rebuttal. What is being done in the trophy hunting world is not life and death for the hunter. A good example would be the state of affairs in Winsconsin, bear hunting, and hunting aggravationists to hunting participants. The online forays bleed out into the real world. If they can't find you on the internet, they look for you where you live. The negative interaction is like a narcotic; addicted people have to get a hit.

Think child sticking the finger in the flame; doesn't understand why it always burns and hurts.

Self-generated crisis is used as a platform to promote hunting online. Hunting can promote hunting. You don’t need to use discrimination unless you are publicizing that media outlet to serve some purpose to make a pseudo-war to garner more attention for revenue and celebrity status.

How the Ancients hunted, and how people hunt today are different mindsets. I highly doubt the Ancients shelled out a cool $100,000 cowrie shells to hunt an animal just for the fun of it. Ancients may have hunted for the fun of it too. I think I read an article that stated early people in America caused a mass extinction from over-hunting. That was before the Spanish, small pox, and religious people acting badly. There was supposedly a lot of people.

This question is an illustration of a person’s inability to understand intent, behavior and outcome. It can also be a mind closed off and not willing to acknowledge the negative effect behavior and action has on the hunting sport and participants. One would have to be accountable for what they have been doing. Just because rock art depicting hunting is there, doesn't make your argument for current trends and behaviors in hunting valid. 

Bottom line: Denial

Think beast, think.

Feel free to go off and write your own answer to this preguntas. 

I would think the Ancients would be a little embarrassed for us at the current view of hunting. They probably would think, "Well, we out did them with a cane and a rock. We walked a 1000 miles with no Wilderness Athlete to keep us strong. How sad are they? You can't do nothing but feel sorry for them and their dependencies."

Written by: It doesn’t matter. I am no one.

The Sweet Spot #1: Santee State Park

Remember this: Sometimes a body has to go hide in Nature; not hide the body in Nature.

Yesterday, I had official business. The interstate landed me a flat tire due to debris. I pulled over into the wildlife refuge to change my tire. After I got the lug nuts off, an Officer Kuhn showed up on the scene and helped me finish off changing my tire; very professional man. Before I left, I walked out to what should have been a sandy beach-like shore, but the water was up to the margins. In the grasses, there were a host of dry, white snail shells in mass with large mussels three inches wide.

I left and went on to my appointment. I was hanging around the Santee State Park. The Santee State Park is a 100 site Lakeshore campground located in Santee, South Carolina. The first thing you notice is the cleanliness of the location. The second is peaceful.

The water was high, but not that bad. Aside from the weather mishap, this would be a good opportunity for anyone wanting to get away from town to meditate, fish, write, or do artsy things in the name of whatever you are into. Do nothing. Nothing is doing. I laugh.

Let me be your eyes and ears for a minute to tell you about this secret honey hole that you might not know about. Usually, when people look at brochures, they want to believe what is advertised, is what they are getting. It is truthfully represented by the photography on the State Parks page. This place is exactly what it is advertised to be.

It is a calm, quiet place situated down in the woods on Lake Marion. Santee State Park is a place with pivotal, well-placed benches of contemplation. I could imagine slews of poems written just by looking out over the flooded forest. You see this tree line that defiantly stands above the water on the distant horizon. If you didn’t know any better, you would think you were staring out over an ocean. In reality, it use to be a town. Somewhere under that water is the location for General Francis Marion's old homestead.

I’ve hiked the 7.5 mile loop trail. It goes down along the water and back around. The thing of note here is to stay on the trail and follow the markers. The ground looks stable near the lake side, but it is moss and debris over roots. You could take a step through into what looks like solid ground but find yourself in a hole you didn’t know was there. The bank naturally slants back down toward the lake. That condition is to be expected. There is also a Limestone Nature trail, Oak Pinolly trail, and Sinkhole Pond Trail. These are a mile long. The best part about these trails is neatness. You still have to pay attention to where you step.

If you are into ecology, biology, or even geology; this park has a sinkhole for you. You will be submerged in Nature. 

The man in the initial picture above fishing off of the pier is a transplant from New York. He was pulling catfish out left and right. This place is well stocked. It has the following fish and variety number:

Sturgeon (2)

Gars (1)

Bowfin (1)

Freshwater eel (1)

Herring and shad (5)

Mudminnows (1)

Pikes (2)

Minnow and Carp (25)

Suckers (11)

Freshwater Catfish (10)

Cavefish (1)

Pirate Perch(1)

Needlefish (1)

Temperate Bass (4)

Sunfish (19)

Perch (11)

Mullet (1)

Sole (1)

For all my fishy friends...this is the hotspot for you.

Click to Enlarge

Out on a pier over the water and back in the treeline on the lakeshore, there are spacious, quaint cabins. It is the perfect place to squirrel yourself away from technology to work on a novel, draw, or just meditate on nothing. Outside these cabins is easy access down to the fishing piers. The area is well-kept and free of clutter.

There are an assortment of things to do. The nearest town, albeit deceptively away, is under ten minutes or so to get to. You are not completely isolated but it gives you the feeling you are. Looking at the online website you find things like:

Special Events

Survival Boot Camp with Chef Laurie

Artist-in-Residence

Fisheagle Tours (Assortment of tours)

Nature Adventure Outfitters (kayak, canoe, and paddle board rentals)

Fishing

Boating (the boat ramp is like a dream with parking)

Playground (very huge)

Swimming

Birdwatching (the bird list is seven pages long)

Geocaching

Tennis Courts

Biking

Hiking

A book and video check out like a library. 

Boardgames

A mercantile on location

Picnic areas available

Outdoor latrines

Campgrounds (Primitive and others with electric and water)

Laundry facilities and dump stations

I go to this location several times a year just to get away from things that bother me and a change of scene. It is a relaxing place. The next time you decide you want to change things up and try something new, this might be the place for you.

Get out there and explore.  

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

If you would like to try it out follow this link to make reservations:

http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/santee/introduction.aspx 

Public Enemy #1

Remember this: When money is exchanged, is there really ownership?

Hypocrisy is becoming the epitaph of everything. We are drowned down in it. Even I am poetically hypercritical and hypocritical. I beg the Universe’s pardon, being a mere hooman.

I was reading this article on Range 365. Yes, the shunned do read other people’s fodder.  It was the article entitled, “World War II Vet Forced to Permanently Disable His Rifle” written by Daivd Maccar.

No, this is not going to be regurgitation of that content.

This is my observations on this unsightly event.

The gun has become public enemy #1.

My first concern was: The way in which governments and people treat war veterans.

This story about a United Kingdom Scotsman, that fought for not his country (Scotland), but Britain, had to hammer a bullet into his sniper rifle and fill it with weld metal, was a shame and blight on the United Kingdom.

How do you render a fellow veteran, who fought for your country to tears? Then incite him to do it to his property?

It appears that individual ownership of one’s own purchased property is merely a mirage of the government owning everything, even you. It is not bad enough that people have to pay taxes, which is looking more like a rent fee, but to be bullied into action based on someone else’s decision on what should be done to that item.

The next time someone signs up for war, maybe they should think about that. Oh wait, I forgot about the draft, that thing they do to eighteen-year-old boys against their otherwise free will.

This breeds anti-government sentiment by the government's own hand, and if insult is not enough for the injury, having the constituents bring about that ship agreeing to legislation; legislation that is going to be the slap of the constituents’ collective hand. Veterans have enough to worry about with impending war and fighting, seeing their ranks beheaded or attacked, poor health care, poverty, displacement, and just straight out shitty treatment. When regular joes have to start up non-profits to provide for war-torn veterans on their own, that illustrates the discrepancy. People are supposed to live life, not be incarcerated by its fear-based laws generated to control ineffectively the ones doing the law breaking.

Shame on you, United Kingdom. Shame on you for stealing your constituents’ liberty, cultural heritage, freedom and incarcerating them like little kids that can’t be trusted with a butter knife. With the threat of a rising extremist group, why would you not let them have the right to defend themselves? No one is able at the moment to stop that blight spreading.

Leaving the subject for a moment, I bid the question: Why is no one telling these people that are running from their country (Syria) to turn around and fight for what is theirs? Countries are taking on more people they will have to defend, that will not even defend themselves, or what is rightfully their homeland.

When you look at refugees from Syria, is that what it looks like when people get to the point they are disenfranchised and not able to protect themselves?

You can only run for so long. Eventually, you have to face the Monster chasing you. Countries can’t always be other countries Saviors, if countries-in-dire-straits are unwilling to even help protect each other.

I believe we should give asylum to displaced people, but also have that hard conversation with them about fighting for their life against evil. If they run from everything, wanting everyone else to fight their battle, they will never learn. That bad attitude could be applied to other issues like saving the planet, human rights, etc.

The behavior has to change, or it continues. I think of domestic abuse here, typical dysfunction.

Back on topic.

My second concern is: The way in which you take money and purchase property. As a consumer, you have no true ownership of the object, idea, or other.

When a person goes to a store and purchases an item, that person is under the assumption that object is their sole property. If a consumer purchases a gun, bullets, and a G-string for the wife, that consumer expects that money exchange to illustrate the age-old idea of trading money for goods. That gun, bullet, or G-string is now theirs. When the government shows up and says, “Hand over the G-string”, the consumer realizes the G-string was never theirs, but on loan.  Every purchase you have made up to this point that is still in your possession is not really yours. It is a loaner. Yet, there are laws stating someone can’t just come up and take your property if you can prove it is yours.

The same goes for land. Can someone show up and take your ancestral land? Did no one learn from the land grab imposed on the First Nations?

If you have a horse on your property, and a random stranger shows up proclaiming it theirs, either you or the person making the claim has to prove ownership through a bill-of-sale. Just on this principle, handing over your right to your property, because someone made a law, is not the way to handle that issue.

The issue might be: Ownership versus Non-Ownership’s implication at Ownership. Think about that.

Governmental officials can come take your kids, your house, your animals, and anything else they might have a need for. If they need so much land to widen a road. They are going to get it and give you a reimbursement. You fight that, they will take it but you won’t get any reimbursement.

As a human, do you really own anything? Or is that just a veil over your eyes you see when you look in the mirror?

Think about the American fight to keep public lands public. You would think the term “public lands” implies public throughout generations, but this is not so, or so it seems.

My third concern is: When a person not in possession of, what is clearly a cultural heritage object, can destroy that object with no thought of the damage to the owner, the culture, or its progeny as inheritors of Cultural Story, History, or ownership of who, what, or where they came from.

The Scotsman's gun had value, meaning, story, and Providence; culturally, ancestrally, and personally. 

When we observe the fight externally in the First Nations community for the need to protect cultural heritage objects such as effigy masks, historical beading practices and design, imagery negatively indicative to the identity of what it is to be First Nations, and the same could apply to this Scotsman and his gun. First Nations do have the genetic pen dipped in the Scottish world, even if it is begrudgingly. The act of taking an object of Providence and destroying it is against a law somewhere, out there.  That sniper rifle had history, it was in his possession, and it was forcibly destroyed by coercion from officials. The Scotsman has been emotionally damaged as well as denied his cultural and personal heritage. Any relative that is living or not yet born has been stringently denied their heritage. It is heritage genocide, as illustrated and still in practice it seems around the world.

People see guns as a bad thing, used by bad people, for bad acts. Other people, in the majority, see guns as memories passed down from their ancestors that are just as relevant as any other object that has meaning. Certain guns, have stories of fighting against the wrongs in the world. This fighting occurred when people not able to use words or compromised to peace came to a bad end. People using guns kept people safe until diplomacy won the day. Once the cultural heritage object is gone, it has no meaning or existence other than what use to be.

My faceless strangers, this is an affront to being a human being. What will be done to that lone Scotsman, will be done to you eventually if you stand there and take it.

My forth concern: The present endeavors to destroy history, any kind of history, without a proper investigation or reintroduction to the masses of corrected history; not a history germinated to line the pockets of people or pull a domination move on groups of people.

Everywhere you look domestic and foreign groups are literally tearing down archaic ancestors’ history. When you consider this, no one, and no place is safe against this onslaught. All those eons of years ago, our ancestors are being rubbed out like something to be ashamed of because a living human said so. If it is an article of shame, tear it down. Not that the object isn’t a memorial to what we were but chose not to be. People want to wash away things but it looks more and more like they are becoming the thing they wish to eliminate. I deduce it down to control. People are smart. You control the content, you control the people. The only problem with that is: If the person running the content is doing the manipulation for ill or selfish gains, the people will suffer. God help you, if they realize what you are pulling. The backlash is gonna hurt.

My fifth concern: Taking away people’s rights, any kind of right, in a hypocritical way that is going with the negative that only shows back up in another form.

Being contrary has its downfalls. When you tell constituents they have a right, but then imply they do not, that is contrary. Your argument for the right is argued loosely or stringently by a law, constituents will see the coercion in your words and behavior. You will appear much like a false prophet. 

Once leadership loses trust, the ship begins to sink, or they make you walk the plank. If government tells constituents, with aged documents, they have a right to bear arms, then try to turn the dialogue and interpretation away from the meaning or the words, problems will ensue. If you tell a country this is the constituents’ country, and a collective group of hired individuals start acting like a dictatorship, who knows best on every angle, losing the path that their decisions are for the country and not their personal gain, there is going to be a clash.

Of course, if you are a foreign or domestic entity with the knowledge of how to break down a society you compete with power for, using the government and its people, and usurping the outcome in your favor, could be a concern for people that see that coming a mile away. 

No conspiracy theories here, right?  

The problem starts with distrust. Distrust comes from faulty words or questionable behavior. Decisions that end from being told one thing, but doing another, and then saying, “Oh, but you misunderstood me” is deception.

My sixth concern: Marring and destroying of cultural heritage objects.

How often do we see news of archeological sites being plundered by individuals, foreign and domestic? I was reading one article stating the robbing of sacred sites of North American tribes for skulls and other parts. When these sites and antiquated objects are stolen, destroyed or marred, people are deeply saddened by the truth of disregard, lack of reverence for ancestors, and the evil of the human mind and heart. Because we do not dig a cultural heritage object out of the ground makes it no more important that the one in the dirt.

When tomb robbers steal things, we impose fines and/or jail time. Who is going to impose fines or jail/time on the United Kingdom officials or their laws that have robbed and taken something that has an altered meaning/value. Now the gun is representative of ancestral, cultural, and heritage theft, once again, by a country on its inhabitants.

My seventh concern: Having to register your property, for governmental discovery and control, then having to have what you thought was your property handed over to a non-owner for their disposal.

When you register an object you think you own with a governmental agency for tax-paying purpose, you expect to just pay taxes. It is not to be kept on lists for future destruction of an object you worked forty plus hours a week for thinking it was yours.

I digress to First Nations history. These tribes have always had to file for Federal recognition, and being carded to protect that tribe’s right at recognition or membership, ownership, privileges and monetary contributions from government. 

When you consider the idea of a gun grab, you could see why people should be concerned. First Nation tribes have always experienced this in some form or fashion. Now non-tribal people get to see what it feels like when the shoe is on the other foot, albeit that shoe could affect First Nations as well.  This is the same thing as the gun issue, except it has been on-going with First Nation tribal membership documentation. Is it to protect or to monitor? Think about it. It is literally being done to humans; lists of people for monitoring.

I am not being anti-government. Sometimes during elections, we hire bad employees. These bad employees are supposed to be working for the people. These employees get into the idea that they are little dictators that hide behind the fact they have a position, where their bad judgments are not accountable to the people who hire them through the vote. These bad hires do not even care if they go down in history as bad leaders. Yet we let them stay in office?

Why?

If the government can use a law to incite you to take your property, you have the right to use that very same law and fire them. In the United States, the government is for the people, not the office holders. They are our employees, not our little dictators.

When you see this kind of activity, it is the fear by government that their constituents are getting out of their control.

                                                         

In light of this travesty, I implore the United Kingdom to apologize publically to this Scotsman for coerced destruction of his cultural heritage and undo what has been done to his gun and his mental health.

You have got to give First Nations one thing. They fight for every little thing that is within their cosmos, when they shouldn’t have to. They don’t run. Think of all those years of displacement, broken trust, lies, coercion, losing parts of your cultural and ancestral heritage, and then no by your leave on the parts of the ones doing the abuse or coercion. 

You, my constituent, should be doing the same thing. It is not the object of the gun. It is the idea of the right to....own a gun, life, liberty, etc. It is not so much the gun. The gun is the diverted focus from the real problem of losing the right or the privilege. If it is a privilege, this could imply deceptive ownership because you are being allowed. 

On the other hand, how hurtful is it to tell and old man, "You are too feeble and obsolete to own a weapon." I think they are doing a Right to Die thing somewhere. That would push someone to end themselves. It is another shame how we treat the older generation like they are in the way of the younger people living their lives. Those old people have past knowledge. Don't disrespect them. 

Think about that before handing something that is truly yours, over.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

South Carolina, Oh Wandering Shore

Remember this: It is not as it once was.

I guess by now, the Great Flood of 2015, is slowly fading in South Carolina. Now there is news that water levels have not crested yet.

I have been reading reports the dams are failing. A lot of negative things are being said about the inconvenience of rain from the sky.

Are the dams really failing or is it that the capacity of the dam has been met? Excess is the problem overriding the volume. Not sure, I don’t work in dams.

It was odd to see. Flooding by the ocean and flooding in the upstate, but the area in between wasn’t that bad.

During those torrential rains, where I live the ground was mushy. In the low spots where the water would settle, or the low spot drainage ditches were overfilled, it was ankle deep. By the next day, when the rains final disappeared, the water was moved along. This might be because of all the holes dug for sand to be shipped out to other places.

I looked at Nature’s shenanigans in the Upstate. Not that we weren’t having a hard enough time with Church Shootings and non-state people calling us racists, baby stealers, and ignorant backwards people. Roads were cracked in half and bridges tested and failed. Caskets were coming out of the Earth, people were taking chances with their lives, evacuees were being robbed while away from home, and everyone wanted to point their anger at the Governor. The Governor couldn’t point her finger at the sky and say, “Now you stop that right now.” Give her a break, she has been busy trying to find us a job. Yet, this isn’t entirely new to us. Repeat after me, "Hurricane."

I just wrote about upland water being held back and it affecting the shoreline. I guess higher powers have decided water needs to be freed a little. I was wondering when we had a drought back in May and June, why some of that water wasn’t released onto the lower half of South Carolina. No one foresaw all this rain, and water was being held back, I assume. If the water was released that would have dropped the volume and garnered more room for rainfall. Everyone that lives here knows in August it starts to rain.

You can’t suck that excess water up and send it to other states because of the content containing invasive things, or carrying something you could pass off onto another state.

Of course, the powers that be could pull another town of Ferguson. There are places Upstate that are ghost towns flooded by water and turned into public scenic areas for locals and tourists.

I live in the Coastal Plains which extends from the Atlantic Ocean inland a distant from 120 to 150 miles to the Fall Line. It adjoins the Piedmont section of the state.  This area is 2/3 of the state. ± 30, 981 square miles and ±494 square miles of that is varying degrees of water. The Coastal Plains are drained by three rivers. The way in which water was to be drained was determined by pre-history but then man got involved and starting damming up the water, which had already plotted its natural course. This damming was to make land more available and control the water.

One must also consider the wandering seashore. The impermanent seashore is affected by the boundary between Coastal Plains and the Continental Shelf. Things that cause a seashore to wander are: Winds, tides, warping of the land, and fluctuations in the sea level.

When you think of land moving, we can skip back to August 31, 1886 when an earthquake happened in Charleston, South Carolina. The faultlines shifted, causing a lot of damage. There were 438 reports between 1754 and 1971; 402 were in the Charleston and Summerville areas; 36 formed a southeastern trend. Four shocks occurred in 1971 in the central part of Orangeburg County on three occasions. One report occurred in Seneca.

Where did my thinking of earthquakes come in on this?

I hiked on this one State Park near Orangeburg, South Carolina and you find volcanic pumice stone on top of the ground by the shoreline. I wish I could find the account I read about someone hypothesizing the presence of underground or submerged volcanic activity. Don’t quote me on that, but I read it somewhere. Not my monkey or my circus.

Here is where I take you by the hand and go back in time. Yes, back in time, once again. Crack, Crack, Pow! Black smoke pores from the time machine motor. I guess I have to get that updated with clean energy. Shame on me...

Enter the Sandhills and archaic oceans (20 million years ago).

There is a place called the Sandhills. The Sandhills State Park and Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge is ±35 miles away from the North and South Carolina Stateline.

The Sandhills was a portion of ancient beach dunes that divided the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain; a former coastline just thirty miles from the North and South Carolina state lines. The coastal plain is shaped by previous ocean levels rising and falling.

Is there any visual proof of a previous beach? There is plenty of geological research illustrating terracing on the Coastal Plains, digging up fossilized shells, etc.

One place I lived was fifty minutes from the beach. After my father would cut fire breaks in the woods behind the house to do equipment testing, you could walk along and find fossilized 12 inch whelk shells. I found a gigantic Knobbed Whelk shell just jutting out of the ground.

Ten minutes away from my present home, there is a coquina plant. Coquina is a sedimentary rock composed of shells of mollusks, trilobites, brachiopods, etc. Coquina is the Spanish word for “cockle” or “shellfish”. Coquina is dumped out and smoothed onto driveways because it has a cement quality. This place is ±50 miles away from dipping your foot in the ocean.

When you consider this coquina, it accumulates in high-energy marine and lacustrine environments where currents and waves do a good job of mixing the oceanic stew. These coquina beds could have been barrier bars, beaches, raised banks, and channels.

The question that is obvious is: how does coquina appear underground fifty miles from the shoreline? Why is there beach sand dunes ±139 miles away from the present shoreline?

When you live your life in a place without knowing prehistory, you forget to remember there is water under the ground, outside of the river, lakes, and creek systems. People are afraid of the water they can see with their eyes. Damming water up settles lots of water in one place, when that water is being filled by rainfall, even a glass will crest from the volume exceeding the amount it can hold.

There you have it. South Carolina, even looking at it from a residential aspect of land, is really just a gigantic shoreline well into the state’s interior waiting to happen...again. Most people do not know that. It is just the place they live, with its flooding, hurricanes, past earthquakes, and those terrible television southern drawls that even I have to change my voice to match.

There will be a lot of consideration to some engineering feats in South Carolina, or a better way of looking at the way we manage water in lieu of further potential rainfall in mass. 

If someone builds a house right on the shore, it should be expected that house could face some problem with flooding or being knocked down. If you live around a place where water is settled for a period of time with no consideration for breaching its carrying capacity, you should expect flooding. When you live in a place that use to be a gigantic beach, expect a lot of water at some time. 

It reminds me of Pompeii. People built a city by a volcano. The volcano eventually erupted. All was lost. 

Hopefully, all the South Carolinians suffering from this disaster will be surrounded by their state family. We have each other, Liberty or Death.

When you see a casket floating by you think to yourself, “You can’t keep a South Carolinian down.”

We Salute You.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

The Breach

Remember this: Things don't change much, or so it appears.

My eyes were reading an outdoor educational plaque. The plaque read:

“the suffocating heat…was the most insufferable I ever felt, not a breath of air stirring-thick cobwebs to push thro’ everywhere, knee deep in rotten wood and dryed Leaves, every hundred yards a swamp with putrid standing water in the middle, full of small Alligators, a thick cloud of Musquitoes every where and no place entirely free from Rattle Snakes.

…spiders, their bodies as large as my coat Button…Crocodiles are very frequent and large in these places, we killed one nine feet long, which attacked a Soldier, it was with difficulty he got from him…nothing to eat and drink but salt Pork, bad rum and brackish water, no other bed than the Sand and no other covering than the Sky.”

British Surgeon Thompson Foster on Long Island (Isle of Palms)

During the American Revolution, British Troops were on the Northside, and the Americans and Catawba were on the south. The distance between these two warring forces was a mile wide body of water pouring into a marshland. A couple of piled up logs defended off gun fire. Imagine that. When you go by the description of the doctor, the area was a wild place full of treacherous conditions.

I looked out over The Breach. Even in 2015, the air is hot and steamy. There is hardly a breeze to be felt. Lingering to long makes you feel like your oxygen has disappeared. The water pulls you when the tide goes out like a sucking vortex. Care has to be taken because the shore will collapse and pull you into deadly waters, with strong currents, that are deceptive to the human eye.

There is only one patch of trees. If visions could be conjured up of a coastal forest stretching for miles with this particular tree, it must have been fantastic. Now there are mansion-types and beach houses littering the shoreline. This is an image of all that is left in the way of trees at this one location.

The longer you stood the more you felt like you were being pulled into something; something a little threatening. You get the feeling of a person being swept away, just standing there, on the shore.

This is an odd feeling. A wide shoreline, bland and bare, with nothing more than the view further out of shorebirds holding court on some mirage-like sandbar out where the mouth of the Breach and the ocean meet, stretches before you. Dried dead grass litters the areas near the smaller plants on higher ground. This doesn’t seem to illustrate the amount seen back during the American Revolution. You could go through The Breach where it feeds into the marshes where grasses abound.

Rattlesnakes and crocodiles are rare to see. Sometimes a noted shark may appear in The Breach to feed.

I went along the shore to the small jetty. The jetty is as wide as a truck. Oyster shells litter the black rocks jutting out of the sand. When I read accounts of pre-history during the Spanish exploration, oyster beds were in great number on the coasts. Now, it could go in the back of a mid-size truck, if that.

An oyster is a bivalve living between two shells. It has the heroic capacity to help build reefs that lend to the human problem of dealing with waves and currents during disasters. When you think of sediment deposits lending to building barrier islands in coastal regions, this little oyster helps the submerged aquatic vegetation to deposit sediment that stabilizes the area and maintains the conditions to help food sources grow.

You don’t see large oyster beds. We see things all the time and are told this is normal, but compared to past reports, it really isn’t a stone in a bucket of water.

Oyster die off helps form the foundations for reef systems, and this die-off forms the substrate for living oysters to carry on their work through layering. Oysters filter the water and reduce turbidity by extracting phytoplankton, organic and inorganic particles. By doing this work, the oysters provide water clarity. Water clarity promotes the growth of aquatic vegetation that is submerged. Submerged aquatic vegetation feeds transient, local populations of creatures. The oyster, by building on itself, fixes a stationary substrate for other organisms such as sea anemones, barnacles etc. The oyster is as busy as the bee.

All these little shell-covered creatures work together, even if not willingly, toward the overall health of the filtration capacity of the reef.

People could learn from an oyster. 

Back to the Poe-like, creepy loneliness.

Isolation is the feeling The Breach slowly injects you with; that barren sense of a disappearing event horizon between ocean and land.

Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie between November 1827 to December 1828 when he was 19 years old. This is what he had to say about the Sullivan's Island (which is on the south side of The Breach):

“The island is a very singular one. It consists of little else than the sea sand and is about three miles long. Its breadth at no point exceeds a quarter mile. It is separated from the mainland by a scarcely perceptible creek, oozing its way through a wilderness of reeds and slime, a favorite resort of the marsh hen. The vegetation, as might be supposed, is scant or at least dwarfish. No trees of any magnitude are to be seen. Near the western extremity, where Fort Moultrie stands and where are some miserable frame buildings, tenanted, during summer, by the fugitives from Charleston dust and fever, may be found the bristly palmetto; but the whole island, with the exception of this western point and a land of hard, white beach on the seacoast, is covered with a dense undergrowth of sweet myrtle….”

I did not see sweet myrtle or the bristly palmetto. Yet Poe reports the plants were there. Come to think of it, the Sabal palmetto tree is on the South Carolina flag, yet one hardly ever sees it. I think it moved to Florida?

There are a lot of mysterious stories about this place.

I was playing in tidal pools, looking at the shells inhabited by tiny sentient beings, slowly moving in the water. I found a small impression in the sand, filled with about a cupful of water. With no wind, there was a substance floating on top of the ocean water and the substance moved about like a compass needle.

Warning signs abound, “Don’t go in the water.”

When I arrived back home, I felt drained. There is something there, and it pulls on you, seductively.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore

Casting a Pellet

Remember this: Thou shalt not cast an oily pellet.

I was sitting at a locked gate; story of my life.

It was an hour too soon to arrive. A silhouette of an avian raptor in flight was painted on the rusty brown surface.

I decided to go down to the boat landing, on refuge public land, located down a side road behind an outpost station. I had an hour to burn.

I lucked up and found a parking spot near the pier. It was low tide. You would think the air would stink, but it doesn’t. I leaned over the rail to hear the sound of champagne bottles being opened. When you look at the mud under the pier, it is riddled with holes. You have a little chorus of on-going sounds.

Looking out over the marsh grass and ocean, you realize it is a pristine, beautiful place.

I noticed an elderly man having problems with his jet ski. He drove it up to the concrete ramp. He glanced around in a confused state. His eyes were brilliant blue, with mad white hair, and he resembled an old ship captain. All he needed was smokes and a peg leg.

I watched as one boat after another passed the man by in his state to load their boats and pull away. I observed his attempts to repair his propeller, which would not go forward. He fixed it, but it was only working in low gear. I overheard him say he was going to attempt to drive the jet ski back down to whence he came. I thought this was a bad idea. Another boater pulled up and his attempt at loading his boat caused a fury of marsh mud to be churned up.

I walked down and offered him my cell phone. Just to be sure I showed him where the telephone numbers were on the sign. Realizing the time, I excused myself for my appointment. On the way out a pelican decided to block the road.

With no help from the pelican, I arrived on time to the event. I parked and strolled inside to be checked off the list. This is the wonderful thing about being unimportant. No one notices you and you can move around at liberty.

The initial presenter began to give his welcome presentation and introduction. This was followed by the organization overview, and volunteer program offered.

The speakers and staff were very adamant about feeling privileged to have so many volunteers willing to help promote and service the non-profit.

Here is where I diverge from thought. Inside this room, which was constructed to suck all foul air out and recirculate filtered clean air in, sat close to fifty people, including myself, that decided the opportunity to extend a service to help assist debilitated and potentially rehabilitated avian raptors and birds.

The room itself was built to prepare for, as the speaker indicated, the “forgone conclusion that South Carolina would one day have an oil spill to contend with.” Ominous, I know.

Given the previous show of South Carolinian non-support of the United States Energy Committee passing legislation eliminating a 40-year ban on exportation of United States crude oil. Upon my readings, it would seem that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) introduced and pushed the bill that would lead to the potential drilling off of the Atlantic coast.

Great, an Alaskan Senator is affecting the Atlantic coastline and doesn't have the privilege of living here, if a spill occurs. Can we send her a clean-up bill if this does happen, because she brought that ship about? Is this the butterfly effect? Someone in Alaska waves a pen and paper, then people everywhere feel the impact of it? 

Bigger question is: Can we reciprocate that back to Alaska? Keep Alaska the pristine, last frontier, after Discovery Channel uses it for every show imaginable, then pollute up the Atlantic seaboard. We didn't even get a show....

On to the bill...up on Capital Hill.

This bill is called Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Act a.k.a. OPENS.

Where does Atlantic Coast come into this? There is a section called the Southern Atlantic Energy Security Act that mandates oil and gas drilling off of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. I kept reading to see that the federal Bureau of Ocean Management targeted the same states, this draft keeps the exportation ban in place, and sets up al this activity on the Atlantic coast that brings about exploration for drilling.

I am not a rocket scientist and my research is a bit fragmented but..... feel free to go out unto the world and write a scientific rendition of why this is a bad idea.

South Carolina has to worry about someone putting up a drill within 50 miles of the shoreline. Even if the oil drill is placed 3 miles offshore, and there was an oil spill, the saturation of that spill into wetlands would not be so easy to clean up. When you consider a certain location can hold 330,000 gallons of water in a marshland after a major storm, how much oil could get sucked up into such a place?

It could possibly take a relatively long time to flush, given the fact that most sediment has been controlled from the damming of rivers inland for hydro-electric purposes. These waterways are no longer producing the amount of push it would take to go back out to the sea. This can be illustrated with the barrier islands near Charleston, South Carolina. Then you could consider the affect an oil spill would have on fresh waterways because even near confluences, where waters mix and the tide moving inland, could that greasy detriment cause problems inland by coating and suffocating out variables in a habitat? Our coasts are not just a dot of dirt, filled with bystanders and free-loading life. It is a moving, ever-shifting, living thing collectively. It would be an affront to Southern sensibility to not protect, what could be considered a part of our ecological family.

When the speaker says an oil spill is a forgone conclusion, one can understand the planning going on now to handle the fallout from a major oil spill. Pretty much, this was to get lists of people to help in case this disaster happens. It is called a Southern Grapevine. One telephone call and all the grapes bunch up to pass the call for help along.

Enough of this perpetually imposing oil apocalypse. On to the birds.

At one point, one of the staff released a barred owl onto the audience. This little owl whizzed past my head several times. The problem it seemed, from the handler, was the owl had been acclimated to her voice and called back to her thinking she was a member of the owl clan. This caused a problem because the owl could not be re-introduced into the wild due to imprinting on humans. The owl's life would be spent at the center as an ambassador to educate the public. Once again, it is not a good idea to make a pet of a wild creature.

Most of this information comes from the meeting. In the greater sense of education and passing on information, much like an owl casting a pellet, I am going to regurgitate it for your consumption.

What are some of the causes or reasons for avian raptors to be submitted to a rehabitation center?

Avians can get into all kinds of misadventure. Avian raptors can be struck by cars while foraging on roadside, or fly out into an oncoming automobile during the night hours. Cause of sickness and death could originate from improper dumping of chemically contaminated animal bodies into landfills, gunshot wounds, lead poisonings, human trash on roadsides and waterways, and degenerative health problems.

What can you do to help solve these problems?

You can volunteer to do a roadside or waterway trash pick-up. Nails, tacks, candy, fast food remains, and other discarded items litter the roadside, along with shiny objects that birds love to ingest.

Be more conscious in your daily living when it comes to other life.

What do you do if you see a avian raptor in distress? 

Do not bother it. Call your local avian rehabilitation center for a representative that is knowledgeable in handing wounded birds. Birds are delicate, just trying to inspect the wounded bird could cause further damage, unset the bird into self-harm, or speed along its demise. Keep pets away from the animal and reduce noise and stimulation. Don't call your friends over to take selfies.

There was more but that information is relocated for the volunteers. More important information is the legalities of dealing with migratory birds, avian raptors, and keeping yourself out of trouble.

The speaker covered the laws and regulations that govern migratory birds, Bald Eagles, and Endangered species. Everyone should have some idea of this.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918): The domestic law that implements the United States' commitment to four international conventions for the protection of a shared migratory bird resource. The international conventions are Canada, 1916; Mexico, 1936; Japan, 1972; and Russia, 1976. Each of these conventions protects selected species of birds that are common to both countries during some point in their annual life cycle. This act makes it unlawful to “pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to purchase, purchase, deliver for shipment, ship, cause to be shipped, deliver for transport, transport, cause to be transported, carry, or cause to be carried by any means whatever, receive for shipment, transportation or carriage, or export, at any time or in any manner, any migratory bird included in the terms of this Convention....for the protection of migratory birds...or any part, nest, or egg of any such bird.” (16 U.S.C. 703)

The Bald Eagle Protection Act (1940): Enacted in 1940 to prevent the decline of the bald eagle and later amended to include the golden eagle. Prohibits, except under certain specified conditions, the taking, possession, and commerce of such birds, their parts, or nests. There is a provision for the use of eagle parts by First Nation tribes, and a repository has been established for parts of eagles and raptors. Take may be authorized by the Secretary of the Interior to protect agricultural interests or to permit recovery operations.

Endangered Species Act (1973): Designed to regulate a wide range of activities affecting plants and animals designated as endangered or threatened. It provides measures to help alleviate the loss of species and their habitats to ensure their survival. With some exceptions, the Act prohibits activities with these protected species unless authorized by the US Fish & Wildlife Service.

An “endangered species” is an animal or plant in danger of extinction.

A “threatened species” is an animal or plant which is likely to be endangered in the future. The United States List of Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants includes both native and foreign species. 

Important provisions of the Act include:

• Listing of species

• Granting of permitting authority, and authority and funding of recovery actions to the states

• Consultation with federal agencies when their actions may affect endangered species

• Prohibition against take except as specifically permitted

• Provisions for permits and for incidental take permits with development of an acceptable Habitat Conservation Plan

Without a permit, it is unlawful to commit, attempt to commit, solicit another to commit, or cause to be committed any of the following activities involving endangered and threatened wildlife and plants:

Import into or export from the United States:

• Take (includes harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, trap, kill, capture, or collect) any listed wildlife within the United States (Court action has interpreted take to include destruction of habitat)
• Take on the high seas
• Possess, sell, deliver, carry, transport, or ship any species unlawfully taken within the United States or on the high seas
• Deliver, receive, carry, transport, or ship in interstate or foreign commerce in the course of a commercial activity
• Sell or offer for sale in interstate or foreign commerce
• Remove and reduce to possession any plant from areas under Federal jurisdiction

State Protection is through state permits. This could include for purposes of: education, rehabilitation, banding, captive breeding, re-introduction, radio-telemetry and satellite tracking, traveling. The South Carolina Laws amended in 1997.

If you feel strongly about volunteering, make sure it is the right thing for you. Everyone should experience something new. It gives you a greater perspective on some issue or subject you would otherwise have not investigated. Some of these issues could be no more than local issues that you, as a constituent of your state, should be involved in or have knowledge of. 

Home is where you live. No one will take care of home like you do.

Written by: Angelia Y Larrimore




I guess I could start penning my novel, "Gone With the Oil Drills."

Legal jargon is credited to the Center for Birds of Prey in Awendaw, South Carolina. Scroll down to the bottom of this website to click on the photo of the Center for Birds of Prey link.

Here is a good article explaining the essentials.
http://www.moultrienews.com/article/20150807/MN01/150809793/